Roar! Roar!
Still groggy with the dregs of sleep, Elizabeth heard the guttural, thunderous roars of unknown beasts tearing through the morning silence from afar.
As her clouded mind sharpened, her blue eyes snapped open, staring straight up at the rough, coarse hide canopy of the tent stitched together with thick leather cords. She listened intently to the reverberations for a long moment. To her relief, she deduced the roars were coming from a great distance away, likely echoing from the deep woods beyond the mountain ridge.
Feeling the tension drain from her neck, she joked quietly to herself:
“What kind of beast has the lungs to bellow that loudly this early in the morning without worrying about tearing its vocal cords?”
She sat up slowly, stretching her stiff shoulders. With practiced ease, she gathered her long, lustrous blonde hair and tied it back into a high, comfortable ponytail, exposing her slender neck and the delicate curve of her collarbones.
Right at that moment, the familiar semi-transparent azure interface flared to life before her eyes with a crisp notification:
[A daily free draw is available!]
Elizabeth became instantly alert. A faint, curious smile touched her lips at the sight of the prompt, and she issued a direct mental command:
System, draw.
A massive, tricolored wheel of fortune instantly materialized in her mind's eye. Following a violent, whistling spin, it began to decelerate until the pointer clicked to a halt on a vibrant green sector.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a Green Box. Would you like to open it immediately?]
Without hesitation, Elizabeth gave a mental nod to confirm the command.
[Congratulations! You have obtained: Utility Knife (Standard Edition).]
“A knife?” Elizabeth murmured in genuine surprise, entirely unaccustomed to receiving such a mundane, physical object from a system.
In a fraction of a second, she felt a tangible, cold weight materialize within her clenched right hand. She quickly pulled her knees up and closely examined the object she was holding - a sleek, nearly twenty-centimeter-long, pitch-black knife boasting a razor-sharp stainless steel blade, safely sheathed in a custom-fitted modern plastic scabbard.
So this system can materialize not just pure magic and ethereal skills, but also physical, manufactured items from the modern world… she thought with profound appreciation.
An exceptionally absurd, authorial thought then sprouted in her mind.
System, tell me honestly… Is it possible to draw something like a nuclear bomb from these boxes in the future?
A long, almost awkward silence stretched within her skull, as if the mechanism were actually computing the probability of her query.
“System? You alive in there?” Elizabeth muttered under her breath.
[From the boxes currently available to the Host, there is absolutely zero probability of obtaining a nuclear warhead or payload.]
Hearing such a cold, literal response, Elizabeth involuntarily widened her eyes, the corner of her mouth twitching nervously into a highly crooked smirk.
“Hey, relax. I was just joking around…”
Wait a minute…
It specifically said 'from the boxes currently available.' In system jargon, doesn't that imply that once I unlock the higher tiers down the line, it might theoretically become possible?
What an absolutely insane system…
“Well, alright then, I’ll take it.” Elizabeth shrugged and began turning the black knife over in her hand with deep satisfaction.
Even a standard steel utility knife was something she desperately needed in this Stone Age era. She could use it for precisely dicing food or herbs, and should a wild beast or hostile human attack unexpectedly, it would serve perfectly as a concealed, lethal weapon.
After familiarizing herself with its weight, she slipped the sheathed blade into her pocket. She lifted the heavy tent flap and stepped out into the crisp morning air, spotting tribe members in the distance bustling about, laboring heavily to haul massive logs.
“Are you awake?” Valeria asked suddenly, materializing right behind Elizabeth in that unnervingly soundless manner of hers.
Without preamble, she extended a hand full of strange forest fruits and advised:
“Here, eat these. Fill your stomach with something light this morning. You can tackle the heavier, tough meat later in the day.”
“Did you gather these yourself this morning?” Elizabeth asked curiously, accepting a handful of the fruits.
They looked like miniature nectarines from earthly orchards, roughly the size of a human thumb, but their skin was an unnatural, eerie pitch-black.
Crunch…
Valeria tossed one nonchalantly into her mouth, chewing loudly and speaking around it:
“I stumbled upon a whole bush of these last night while on patrol. They taste alright; they won't poison you.”
Crunch…
Elizabeth picked up one of the black berries, instinctively wiped it against the side of her sports top, and popped it into her mouth without further hesitation, biting down.
The texture was bizarre and alien, slightly gritty and mealy, while the flavor hit her palate with a tart sweetness she simply couldn't equate to any fruit back on Earth.
She swallowed it in a few quick bites, deftly spat the hard pit onto the ground, and asked:
“What exactly is this variety called?”
“Black berry. It's a pretty rare and hard-to-find type of wild fruit,” Valeria answered, her pale cheeks comically stuffed with the berries, making her look exactly like a greedy, vigilant squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter.
“What exactly are they building right in the center of the camp?” Elizabeth turned her head, gesturing with her chin toward a group of sweating men laboring under the elders' supervision to erect a tall, wooden log platform that strongly resembled an altar.
“They're raising the sacred dais for tonight's Succession Ceremony,” Valeria explained, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle a long yawn.
“You haven't slept a wink all night on watch. Go back to your tent and rest before you collapse from exhaustion,” Elizabeth offered with genuine concern.
“There’s no need. It’s just one sleepless night; for a Warrior, it's nothing,” Valeria waved her hand dismissively, rejecting the suggestion outright.
She shoved the last few fruits into her mouth, swallowed them greedily, and then flashed a wide grin - revealing teeth that had been stained an eerie, pitch-black from the berry juice:
“Let's get going. I'm taking you straight to the Sharu's pavilion; he ordered you brought to him the moment you woke up.”
“Your teeth… they're completely black,” Elizabeth murmured, her eye twitching nervously as she fell into step behind the horned girl.
“Oh, that's just from the juice, right? It's nothing. I'll just eat a few chunks of fatty roast meat later, and they'll go back to normal,” Valeria brushed it off casually, entirely unbothered by her appearance.
“…” Elizabeth just rubbed her forehead helplessly. Recalling the meticulous hygiene habits of people back on Earth and looking at the incredibly wild, blunt, and straightforward horned girl walking ahead of her, she sighed inwardly.
They truly are cut from an entirely different cloth. Two completely separate worlds…
After a short walk, the two arrived before the entrance of the grand chieftain's pavilion. Standing stiffly on either side of the flap like two living statues were Neria and Riven.
“Go inside. The Sharu has been waiting for you since dawn,” Neria said solemnly, lifting the heavy entrance hide for her.
“Alright, thank you.” Elizabeth took one deep, steadying breath and stepped confidently across the threshold.
Entering the spacious interior, heavy with the scent of burning incense and dried herbs, she immediately spotted the old man sitting cross-legged on a bed of thick pelts. His deep eyes, brimming with gravity and ancient wisdom, were fixed directly on her.
“Sit across from me, my child,” the old Sharu spoke softly, gesturing to a prepared, soft pelt resting directly in front of him.